Gad (Prophet)

Biblical Record

Gad first appears in 1 Samuel 22:5. While David was fleeing from Saul, the prophet Gad told David not to remain in the stronghold but to go into the land of Judah. David heeded his counsel and moved to the forest of Hareth.

Gad is best known from 2 Samuel 24 and its parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21. After David ordered a census of the people and then recognized his own sin, God sent Gad, "David's seer," to have David choose one of three punishments: famine, three months of flight before his enemies, or three days of pestilence. David replied that he wished to fall into the hand of the LORD rather than the hand of man, "for his mercies are great" (2 Samuel 24:14), and pestilence then came upon Israel. Gad went to David again and told him to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (called Ornan in 1 Chronicles). David paid for the land and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings there. 2 Chronicles 3:1 records that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah, at the threshing floor of Ornan.

In addition, 1 Chronicles 29:29 states that the acts of David are written "in the book of Gad the seer." Second Chronicles 29:25 records that when Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the temple to play musical instruments, he did so "according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet."

Significance in Scripture

A "seer" is one who sees what God reveals. First Samuel 9:9 explains that the one now called a prophet was formerly called a seer. Gad is portrayed, together with Nathan, as a prophet at David's court who delivered the word of God to the king. He announced judgment for the king's wrongdoing, and he also pointed the way to restoration by designating the place where the altar was to be built. For this reason his name is remembered in connection with the site of the Temple in Jerusalem and with the tradition of temple worship music.

The New Testament does not mention the prophet Gad. The "Gad" mentioned in Revelation 7:5 and elsewhere is the name of the tribe descended from Jacob's son and is distinct from the prophet Gad.

Interpretation and Issues

• The length of the famine: In the New Korean Revised Version, 2 Samuel 24:13 reads "seven years," while 1 Chronicles 21:12 reads "three years." The Septuagint text of 2 Samuel has three years. Some regard the discrepancy as having arisen in the course of scribal transmission, while others seek to harmonize the two texts by treating the larger figure as the combined total of the preceding and following periods of famine.
• The motive for the census: Second Samuel 24:1 says that the LORD "moved" David, while 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that Satan "provoked" David. Commentators differ in how they explain the relationship between the two accounts.
• "The book of Gad the seer": This work has not survived and is not part of the canon. Jewish tradition reportedly holds that Gad and Nathan completed the latter part of the books of Samuel, but the biblical text itself does not say so.

In the Korean Church

The New Korean Revised Version refers to him as "the prophet Gad" or "Gad the seer." In Korean church preaching, Gad is seldom treated as a subject in his own right; he is more often mentioned in sermons on the census narrative in 2 Samuel 24. In particular, David's words at the threshing floor of Araunah, "neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24), are frequently quoted in sermons on devotion and offering. In Sunday school, he is usually introduced briefly as part of the story of David.